3 Reasons Why On-Demand Startups Need a CRM

One of the surefire ways towards a successful business is catering to the on-demand services. No matter which industry you come from (transportation, electronics, hospitality, or health care) the current situation clearly states the popularity of on-demand services almost everywhere.

If there is a demand for any particular service, you will surely end up finding an application that makes it possible for the end user to access it without leaving their current place. This directly implies the increasing number of startups with every passing year.

Now, in order to manage and analyze customer communications as well as data right through the lifecycle of the customers, different enterprises use a Contact Relationship Management (CRM) System. It drives sales as well as increase customer retention. If you are focused on enhancing your customer base as a startup, CRM is a must; it is all the more important if you are an on-demand startup (after all, you are there to provide your customers with a service that is demanded by them).

CRM is surely a need for every business. Before we dive into the reasons why a CRM can benefit an on-demand startup, let us first have a brief understanding of how the on-demand service can prove advantageous for the startups as a whole.

Why are On-Demand Services Favorable for Startups?

If you are planning on pursuing a startup endeavor, it is imperative to do a bit of your homework to know your market. You can indulge in innovative opportunities created by the on-demand services that may not have existed otherwise.

The customers are well aware of this concept and have already started expecting from the startups to cater to their demands. If your company is unable to match their needs and preferences, your competitors are likely to take the opportunity by satiating your potential customers’ needs.

The on-demand services should not be necessarily new; it can be something as simple as vacation rentals or ride-sharing. What’s new is how quickly and conveniently companies can make these services accessible to your potential customers. If you are facilitating your product or services through a laptop or mobile device, the customers can use them just by pressing a few buttons. Need to paint a room, fix your car, shop for a party or want a ride? All of this can now be done in no time!

According to the Pew Research Center, there are around 77% of adults in the U.S. who currently own smartphones; 94% among those are between the age group of 18 and 29 years. Considering the trend of this age group as of now, the number of Americans who will buy products and services through their phones is likely to grow in the future.

How a CRM Works Wonders for On-Demand Startups

Having a strong CRM strategy will assist you in understanding your customers and their demands in a better way. This, in turn, will escalate your business.

With CRM in place, your startup benefits from:

Organized information

Unified and collaborative interface

Scalability

Improved ROI

Automated service

Maximized up-selling and cross-selling

Above all, the other interesting and important reasons for which CRM becomes a must for on-demand startups include:

1. It is an easy way to find customers

If you are thinking that CRM is just a database of contact information, you need to dive a little deeper to know the facts. CRM is a mixture of wide-ranging features including automated campaigns, sales funnels, web forms, and landing pages and much more. In short, if you have a CRM in place, your business not only becomes more efficient, but it also becomes better with its sales figures.

You as a startup cannot afford to lose even a single customer. This means you need to leverage even a single sign of interest from your target audience. You can do this with web forms – a part of CRM that captures the actions of your website visitors. You can further track on the course of a visitor, what they explored, page-wise information on time spent and much more. This research helps you understand the buying behavior and interests of your prospects.

Additionally, the target audience who visits your website gets automatically added as a lead by creating lead capture forms through CRM. Manually updating the contact list is definitely a time-consuming process. Against this, an online form like landing page can get you the details of your prospects. You can further nurture them according to your set strategy for customer acquisition. This way, you’ll be getting the leads quite easily with the help of CRM.

2. It gives you all the data you require at your fingertips

Everything is data-driven in this fast-moving digital world – from where you should spend your marketing dollars to what are your customers’ buying habits. Thus, there is no wonder why you need a proper management system that can assist you in sorting, analyzing and providing you with this data exactly when you need it.

Let’s understand this with an example: You have come up with an on-demand dog walking app idea. And, you have a customer who has started booking slots on your app, but not on a regular basis.

Setting up a CRM here will help you track and communicate with the customer in order to find the reasons for not being a regular customer. Similarly, if you find few existing customers who have the same booking pattern, you can introduce a new offer program specifically for them – like, 10% off on every order for signing up with this program. Don’t you think this will trigger your sales?

CRM can provide you with all the useful information through which you can further alter your marketing and selling strategy in order to ensure that you have repeat customers. This way, your on-demand startup will benefit in earning a loyal customer base gradually.

3. It aids in customer retention and offers a better customer experience

As an on-demand startup, your primary focus will definitely be acquiring, retaining and engaging the customers while giving them a better shopping experience.

CRM facilitates all your customer information on a single page. It will involve everything related to the customer, including their purchase history, feedback and activity. Thus, as a startup, you can be more prepared to respond to their queries quickly and efficiently.

If you further indulge in segmentation and profiling of the prospects, it will really aid in taking better care of them.

The purchase history will help you to foresee the products or services they are interested in ordering or when they will re-order again. Based on this information, you can send push notifications, reminding them about your product or send some special offer pertaining to their last order. This will ultimately increase customer retention.

Secondly, CRM provides you with an easy flow of the sales process – right from ordering to billing. The contact management software provides with vital customer data stating about what you need to be prepared for future orders and events. For instance, once the responsible department takes the order, the sales and billing department will access the same information through the CRM system and process the bill. Again, the shipping department will take through and access the same system information and prepare to send the product.

While this process is being carried out, you can update your customers at every stage to keep them informed about their order status. This way, CRM offers quite a comfortable customer experience and thus benefits you as a business largely.

Grow Your On-Demand Business with a CRM

The above-mentioned benefits are more than enough to convince you to consider CRM for your startup. There are different CRM tools that you should imply on accordingly in order to reap maximum benefits for your business. But to summarize, if you have a properly implemented and managed CRM system – it can save you time, create happy and satisfied customers and an increasing customer base! So, begin your startup life with an effective CRM in place.

Yuvrajsinh Vaghela

Yuvrajsinh is a Marketing Manager at Space-O Technologies, a firm having expertise in developing iOS mobile apps. He spends most of his time researching on the mobile app and startup trends. He is a regular contributor to popular publications like Entrepreneur, Yourstory, and Upwork. Apart from that, he bridges recruiters to the job seekers. In fact, he has assisted 18 candidates to get a new job last month.
Social media profiles:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvrajv5/
https://twitter.com/yuvrajv5